TV-BAD///INTERNET-GOOD (You Say You Want A Revolution?)

[kpete]

Internet and cell phones the ‘best weapons against dictatorships’

By Eric W. Dolan
Tuesday, March 8th, 2011 -- 6:08 pm

Decentralized communication technologies, such as cell phones and the Internet, are the best way to ensure the spread of democracy around the globe, according to an study published in the International Journal of Human Rights.

Social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter have become an important tool for democracy and human rights activists in the Middle East and North Africa, where it has played a pivotal role in helping organize protests against repressive governments.

"TV is especially bad for human rights, because the government can feed propaganda to the population," said the study's author, Indra de Soysa, a professor at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU). "The Internet and mobile phones have the opposite effect. And social media is different because it gives people free access to a channel of communication."

more:
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/03/08/internet-and-cell-phones-the-best-weapons-against-dictatorships/

[msongs]

1. US internet is being strangled by ever higher corporate charges and fees nt

[wtbymark]

2. Proudly, haven't had cable in 15 years!

...and I get along just fine : )

[mike_c]

4. turned mine off in the early 1990s and not only don't miss it...

...but like someone waking up from a deep sleep, I've gotten far more back in my life than just the time I once spent watching the tube. In the years since I cut off the TV cable I've read hundreds of books, magazines, and web pages on all kinds of topics, including lots of entertaining fiction, I've devoted many hundreds of hours to conversation with the important people in my life, started a new career and been successful in it, developed a dozen or more active leisure pursuits and hobbies, become MUCH more physically fit (a really important consideration at my age!), and pursued life-long learning.

I've written here several times about how I occasionally see television programming these days-- maybe once or twice a year, generally when staying in motels-- and it utterly appalls me. That's the best advice I can offer anyone who can't see any good reason to turn off the squawking box: try it for six months or a year and your head clears out-- then when you see the crap that most Americans take for granted after clearing your head a bit, you'll wonder how you ever found the time to waste in front of a television!

[Hannah Bell]

3. internet & cell phones: best way to monitor dissidents

[mike_c]

5. two words....

Strong encryption.

[Kat45]

6. People who stopped their cable: how do you get your Internet?

The only way for me to get high-speed Internet access is through the cable company, but if you only get Internet service you pay a lot more for it than you pay if you also get their cable service. And it is expensive enough as is.

[LiberalAndProud]

7. I still use cable for internet. It's cheaper without the tv.

[Matariki]

8. I'm using Clear wireless.

It works great, but I'm right by a tower.